New push against crime

Minister with the Responsibility for Crime Prevention, Corey Lane, yesterday said that new programmes and legislative changes are coming to head off crime. Lane said the job of crime prevention required a comprehensive approach to the issues, and though satisfied with the results yielded by the National Peace Programme as well as the Flip Yuh Script initiative, he is looking to implement more programmes towards curbing crime. “Phase two of our crime prevention programme looks at situational crime prevention. What you need to do is understand what makes it easier for criminals. So in this programme, we look at the increase of lighting of areas, the increase of patrols, the increase of CCTV, and the increase of making sure that we are making it more difficult to commit a crime. “This programme also includes a database of crime, tracking crimes periodically and in real-time to identify trends and focus on the areas where there is an uptick in criminal activity.” Lane explained that seasonal spikes are easiest to track where holiday periods such as Crop Over or Christmas led to more crime. “We understand that and we get ahead of the trend and this one is merely with the Barbados Police Service in terms of increasing certain things, the one within our office is really working through public policy and lobbying for measures for situational crime prevention,” he said. The Minister said his approach remains to address circumstances that lead individuals towards crime, and this inspires his continued focus on youth-based programmes. “We’ve been working through a number of sports initiatives. I know you’ve heard about the ‘Guns Gone Gloves On’. We had a very successful tournament in the New Orleans. We just launched one in a Bush Hall. We’re going up to St Lucy next. “I have some discussions with the Minister of Sports also. So Barbados, they want to put you on notice for a big, big tournament. Very big tournament, a big national tournament, something like what we had in the past,” Lane said. “The message I’m sending to Barbadians is that we recognise that crime is a very complex phenomenon, and we are approaching it in a very comprehensive manner. So we’re looking at the schools, the value programmes, the parenting, the sports, the youth,” he said.